A foodie revolution is under way on the streets of Colchester...with a wide array of market stalls now offering delicious, freshly-cooked dishes from around the world.

Gone are the days when it was just cafes, fast food outlets or sandwich shops.

Colchester’s very own curry man, Ken Flatt, led the way with his Chickpea Catering Company. He started his market stall four years ago and has gone from strength to strength.

He says: “Before this, I worked as a chef in a restaurant, but this was something I’d wanted to do for some time.

“I’d travelled a fair bit and in places such as Thailand, this is the norm. I loved the way you could just go out on to the street and pick up a freshly-cooked, delicious meal.

“This is proper takeaway fast food.”

Ken now sets up in Culver Street West on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, serving up a different curry each day.

With a smile, he explains: “I like to educate my customers, so I’m always trying to bring something new to the stall.”

Over the years, that has included a Cambodian fish curry, using freshly-caught sustainable coley from Hughes fishmongers, in Head Street, Colchester.

Then there was the north African apricot beef curry, which Ken says “went down very well”.

In recent months, he has been joined by several other food stalls selling takeaway lunches with an international flavour, not least Andy Roshay’s paella and tapas business, and Simon Collins’s Tatty Bojangles stall, which specialises in Mexican food.

Andy set up Red Hot Chilli Fella business two years ago, in pursuit of his passion for the hot stuff.

He says: “I love chillis and some are actually quite hard to get hold of, like naga chillis, the hottest in the world, and the chipotle chilli, which has a unique smoky flavour.

“The stall was a way of selling the produce I make from chillies and the food was an offshoot from that. Basically, I’ve long wanted to open up a tapas bar in the town. This was a brilliant way of trying out that business model.”

His seafood, chicken and chorizo paella looks stunning and has been drawing the customers to the stall.

He adds: “People associate paella with holidays in Spain. Essentially, it’s a one-pot dish, so it’s easy to keep at a constant temperature over the lunchtime .”

There’s also a fair bit of chilli action going on at Simon Collins’s Mexican stall.

A passion for food led him to set up a stall on Colchester market in December.

He says: “I tried quite a few different cuisines, including French and Italian, but settled on Mexican, because they have the best street food culture.”

His chilli is made from ground beef, slow-cooked for 17 hours, making it really tender and accompanied by Simon’s special Mexicana cheese sauce, sour cream with lime juice and pureed sweet potatoes, roasted with honey. He adds: “I’m always introducing new things. The latest is home-made lemonade, made with lemons, limes, Madagascan vanilla and mint.”